The impending sale of the $10.5 billion Anglo-Irish loan portfolio is galvanizing Boston's commercial real estate market, where many of the underlying properties are located. The chase is picking up because the "war room" for the portfolio - a restricted online site with information about the listing is now open and potential investors are getting their first taste of the loans, according to one interested buyer. The first call for offers will be at the start of August - a little under a month away - with the hope of closing in late September, one broker said. Eddie Byrne, head of lending for Anglo-Irish U.S., and officials at Eastdil, which is marketing the sale, did not return calls.
Interest in the portfolio is rampant. "This is something that people change their [summer vacation] plans for. It's taking up a lot of the bandwidth in Boston," one Boston broker noted. "I've gotten a lot of calls in the last couple days from people interested in it - they're looking for any information they can get," another broker added. "People are really just getting started on this, and there is a lot of capital interested in it now that wouldn't have been a year ago."
The number of real estate players who could assume the full portfolio is extremely limited; however, this has not stopped smaller investors from getting involved with the hope of the portfolio being broken into smaller sub-pools of loans. The smaller players seeking information are likely backed by larger investors or will take a run at individual loans, aiming to submit attractive enough offers that these loans can be separated from the pool, one of the brokers said.
The portfolio will require substantial due diligence manpower given the mix of performing and non-performing loans. Two separate interested parties each have 75 people working full-time on due diligence, one of the Boston brokers said. "People [looking to get at the real estate] smell blood in the water on several of the deals in there," he added.
One or two local players downplayed the impact of the listing, noting that more Boston assets are being sold. New listings include Taurus Investments and UrbanMeritage's 23-property mixed-use portfolio along one of the city's main retail areas, Newbury Street. It is expected to sell for more than $175 million, according to the local trade publication, The Real Reporter. Brookfield Office Properties is also selling Exchange Place, in the Financial District, which could fetch up to $600 million. Both listings are with Eastdil. --Jessica Pothering